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000072_icon-group-sender _Sat Nov 4 01:53:49 1995.msg
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Sat, 4 Nov 1995 07:02:15 MST
Return-Path: <EricArmstrong@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Nov 95 01:53:49 UT
From: "Eric Armstrong" <EricArmstrong@msn.com>
Message-Id: <UPMAIL02.199511040154260855@msn.com>
To: "'icon-group@cs.arizona.edu'" <icon-group@cs.arizona.edu>
Subject: Icon and OLE?
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
OLE is microsoft's new mechanism for sharing binary objects. My initial
reading of it is that is pretty impressive. Time will tell whether the fire
remains undimmed.
One of OLE's potential windfalls is OLE Automation. This mechanism allows
any OLE object that exports its API to be driven by any other application,
regardless of the language its written in.
If I read this right, there is a brand new capacity to create "command
scripts" that use any number of powerful utilities to achieve its ends. (And
not statically, either, since one of OLE's functions is to permit querying
objects to find out what interfaces they support.)
OLE would therefore seem to open up a couple of great markets for Icon
developers.
One market would be to give other languages (like the woefully deficient
Visual Basic), access to Icon's powerful data structures by encapsulating
them in a program that exports an OLE interface.
Another opportunity might be setting up Icon as an OLE-aware scripting tool,
making it the "command language" of choice for Windows automation.
I would like to see Icon take advantage of one of both of these opportunities
so it can develop a larger base of users. (I look forward to the Windows 95
version.)
I must point out, however, that the name "Icon" will create visibility
problems in a windowing world, since it will be immediately assumed that it
is some kind of tool for making pretty little pictures. (But of course, you
know that.)